How Dimock Images started their logo design journey

Summary

Documentary-style wedding and portrait photographer looking for a logo to match my style. Need something clean and modern, but with a bit of independent flair. I like to attract mid-range wedding clients who appreciate black-and-white photography and off-beat imagery. I'm not a commercial photographer and do not need to appeal to commercial clients.

Company name

Dimock Images

What inspires you and how do you envision the design for your business?

I need a new logo for web and print use to replace the generic, clipart-infused mess I'm using now (see http://dimockimages.com ). Logo should be landscape format and include a badge that can stand alone. Design should be clean and easily readable, even as a watermark. Initials (DI or D) are fine (especially for the badge), but obvious clipart is not. I like organic, hand-drawn shapes.

Delivery must be Photoshop CS3-compatible (I do not have Illustrator) with a transparent background. Prefer layered Photoshop file with text and vector layers rather than flat image. Any raster elements must scale to minimum 10" width, 300 dpi.

Wants

- A clean, contemporary design. Organic enough to represent an artist, not a technologist.
- Simple enough, and with enough contrast, to be readable as a watermark on my images. Less is more.
- Landscape format with a badge that can stand alone.
- Some sort of graphical element, or even a play on the initials DI. If using initials in the badge, feel free to get creative with the forms -- shouldn't just be plain letters. EDIT 7/15: I've received many submissions with a D and some sort of dot representing the i. Looking for some more variety, especially some more organic shapes. Hand-drawn elements are encouraged.
- Optional tagline: Documentary Photography
- Fonts: Prefer sans-serif, but some flair is okay. My favorite "stock" font is Trebuchet.
- Colors: Prefer muted earth tones. Examples: 5b3528, e2e7d9, ded9ce. Also like bold accent colors (in moderation).
- Version adapted to dark-colored background a plus.

Don't want

- Gimmicky fonts (scripty, blocky, sci-fi, comic sans, etc.). Should be readable.
- Clip art or easily-recognizable objects.
- Anything obviously wedding-y (yes, I know I'm a wedding photographer).- Drop shadows, gradients, and other Photoshop abuse. The Apple gel look is okay if accompanied by an equivalent "flat" version (I'm a sucker for gel, but it will go out of style soon).